


They Don't Know About The I-Love-You's

by samandbucky



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coming Out, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-05-01 16:51:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samandbucky/pseuds/samandbucky
Summary: Liam and Zayn are in a secret relationship of a year and a half, one night on tour, it's no longer a secret.





	They Don't Know About The I-Love-You's

Zayn smiles to himself as he walks down the hallway, heading to his hotel room.

Tonight’s show went amazing. Zayn thinks it’s the best one of the tour so far. Everybody did so well, and the crowd were extremely loud and singing along to every song. The boys had so much energy from this, and Zayn even took part in one of Liam’s water fights, which is something he never usually does.

Zayn takes out his hotel room key and opens the door. He hardly takes a few steps into the room before someone’s grabbing him and slamming against the wall. Zayn gasps and looks up with wide eyes.

“Liam!” Zayn breathes, hitting his bandmate on the shoulder playfully. “You scared the hell out of me!”

Liam smirks, “that was the point,” he whispers, and leans forward to kiss a few times.

Zayn pulls away and smiles fondly at Liam. “How’d you get in anyways? Not that I’m complaining,”

“I annoyed Paul until he finally agreed to give me a key to your room,” Liam chuckles.

“Hm. I’ll have to thank him later,” Zayn says, grabbing Liam by the shirt and pulling him into another kiss. Zayn lets out a yelp when Liam suddenly lifts him up and carries him over to the bed, and Zayn laughs as Liam drops him onto the bed. He takes a deep breath as he watches Liam climb on top of him.

“Do you have any idea how long it’s been since we’ve had this?” Liam asks, straddling Zayn.

“Too long,” Zayn breathes. “Maybe- Maybe we should think about… telling people.”

Liam frowns. “Where is this coming from?” He asks. “We agreed to keep our relationship a secret.”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “That was well over a year ago. Things have changed now,” he argues.

Liam sighs with frustration, and then he slides off Zayn, sitting beside him on the bed. “Zayn, just wait... we can’t just come out randomly, no matter how much I want to. You know that I want to come out. But, maybe we should at least wait until the tour is over and then talk about it,” he suggests.

Zayn pushes himself up. “That’s just your excuse so we don’t have to talk about it anymore,”

Liam glares at him. “I didn’t come here to argue with you about this. Christ, Zayn. I just wanted to have a nice night with my boyfriend. Why is that so hard to ask for?”

Zayn scoffs. “I’m going to take a shower,” he mumbles, sliding off the bed and grabbing his suitcase.

“Zayn,” Liam tries, but Zayn ignores him and heads to the bathroom after grabbing some clothes.

When Zayn comes back from his shower, Liam’s gone. But, Zayn’s not surprised, just a little disappointed. Zayn hates when he and Liam argue about coming out. They two have been dating for over a year now. Hiding their relationship is something that they both agreed on when they first started dating a year ago, thinking that it would be better for the band. But now, Zayn is completely head over heels for Liam, and wants nothing more than to tell the world how he really feels. Liam’s a little bit more hesitant.

Zayn thinks that they should at least start telling some people, like the other boys and their families, and maybe even some of their management. He already knows how Liam feels about coming out to his fans. Liam’s not ready yet, and Zayn completely understands that. He would never pressure Liam to come out when he’s not ready to come out yet. Zayn wants them both to be on the same page about coming out.

The next day, they have interviews schedule throughout the day to promote the new album and tour. Zayn honestly doesn’t know why they need to even promote anything. The album is doing really well and half the cities of their tour is already sold out. But, it’s not like he has a say in anything.

Now, the interview is going to be awkward with him and Liam. Liam’s not answering any of his texts.

“Thanks, Lou,” Zayn says before jumping out of the chair. “Only you can fix my awful bed hair.”

“Oh, please. Your bed hair still looks amazing. You can literally never have bad hair,” Louis speaks up.

“Louis’s right,” Lou agrees, before going over to work on Harry’s hair.

Zayn rolls his eyes playfully as he looks over at Louis. “It was worse this morning. Didn’t get any sleep,”

“Someone wanna tell me why we’re up so damn early?”

Zayn looks over and instantly freezes when he sees Liam walk into the dressing room. He turns around, and quickly pulls out his phone, pretending to be busy. He hopes that Liam won’t say anything to him.

“Zayn. Uh, can we talk?”

Zayn jumps slightly and looks up to see none other than Liam. “About what?” He asks, trying to stay calm.

“You know what. We still have time before the interview,” Liam whispers.

Zayn slowly nods. “Yeah,” he says, following Liam out of the dressing room. They head to the bathroom, and make sure that nobody else is in there. “Look-” Zayn begins, before Liam cuts him off by kissing him. Zayn’s eyes widen in surprise, and then Liam pulls away. “Li?”

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want to fight with you, especially with all these interviews and the show tonight,” Liam says. “I want to talk about coming out. It’s just… now isn’t a good time.”

Zayn takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to admit it, but you are right,” he mumbles. “It doesn’t make sense to come out in the middle of a tour. We already have so much stress on our shoulders right now. I mean, I’m sure the other boys would be supportive of us, but…” He looks up at Liam.

“The boys would support us. I have no doubt about that,” Liam says. “Let’s wait until tours over, and then we can talk about coming out, and I really mean to talk about it. Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah,” Zayn slowly nods. “That’s okay with me.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m glad we had this talk, Li.”

“I wasn’t about to sit through multiple interviews with us in an argument. You know the fans analyze every single thing we do. They would have figured it out easily,” Liam rolls his eyes.

“I don’t know, I think I’m a pretty good actor,” Zayn says as he leans against the bathroom wall.

Liam laughs. “I love you, Z. But you are not that great of an actor,” he says, walking closer to him.

“Oh, really, Li? Who’s the one who had to act as a woman in the Best Song Ever video?” Zayn asks, raising his eyebrows at Liam. “I think I win this round.”

“Yeah, okay. Still can’t believe you agreed to doing that, although I’m not complaining,” Liam grins.

“Oh, I’m sure you enjoyed every second of it, Payne,” Zayn laughs and shakes his head.

Liam looks over when the door starts opening and quickly steps away from Zayn. He raises his eyebrows when he sees Louis pops his head into the bathroom. “What’s up, Lou?” He asks casually.

“Looking for you, lads. Lou needs you in hair, Liam,” Louis tells him.

Liam whines. “My hair doesn’t need to be done!”

“You tell that to our hairstylist, not me,” Louis laughs and then he walks back out.

Zayn chuckles as he watches Louis leave before turning to look at Liam with an amused look. “Well?”

“Jesus Christ,” Liam mumbles. “Come on. We’ll finish this conversation later.” He reaches over and grabs Zayn’s hand, pulling him out of the bathroom. They make it back to the dressing room.

Zayn sits in the chair and smiles as he watches Liam get his hair done by Lou, and then he takes a sneaky picture of him and posting it on snapchat with the caption ‘grumpy’ with a grumpy emoji face.

“What are you smiling about over there, Malik?” Liam asks curiously.

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,” Zayn replies, looking up at Liam with a small smirk.

“Mhm, and why don’t I believe you?” Liam asks, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s your problem, mate. Not mine,” Zayn says, smiling a little when Liam laughs. He glances over and tries to ignore the way Louis is looking at him. He doesn’t want the boys to start getting suspicious.

The interviews went well. They answered the same boring questions over and over again, only a few of the interviews were actually fun and interesting with new questions being asked. Zayn sits next to Liam so of course he was distracted a lot of the times but he was actually in a good mood.

Zayn’s good mood even transferred into the show tonight. Liam and Louis had messed around as usual with water fights, Liam even trying to get Zayn a couple of times with water but failing.

During ‘Live While We’re Young’, Liam walks up to Zayn while singing.

Zayn looks at Liam and smiles, before squirting water at Liam. He laughs at Liam’s surprised reaction and quickly hurries to the middle of the stage where the other boys just in case Liam tries to get him back.

 _“And girl, you and I, we’re ‘bout to make some memories tonight…_ ” Zayn slowly starts to back up when he sees how close Liam is to him, which can’t mean anything good. He yelps when Liam suddenly grabs him and drags him down to the stage. Zayn laughs as he rolls on his back. “You’re the worst, Liam!” Suddenly, the other boys join in and dog pile on top of them. Though, Zayn isn’t surprised by this.

Somehow, they manage to finish the song even while completely goofing off with each other on stage. The concert goes well. Really well. Zayn thinks it’s the best show they’ve done so far of the whole tour, and it probably has something to do with the massive energy of energy they had tonight.

“Zayn,”

Zayn looks over and freezes slightly when he sees Lisa walking up to him. This can’t be good.

“The show was great tonight, you did amazing,” Lisa starts, Zayn can’t help but let out a sigh of relief, but Lisa continues. “I know that you lads have to get back to the buses for your next show, but we’ll be quick. I need to have a word with you.” She quickly grabs Zayn and then she leads him away from the boys before he can even think about protesting. Lisa turns and looks at Zayn.

“Why only me?” Zayn asks. “How come the other boys aren’t here?”

“Because, this doesn’t involve them. Well, only one of them,” Lisa says. “I’ve been watching you, and… something tells me that there’s something going on between you and Liam.”

Zayn scoffs. “Well, suspicions are incorrect,” he crosses his arms against his chest. “Liam’s straight.”

“So you tell us. But, I saw the way he had his hands all over you tonight,” Lisa argues.

“So, what? It’s not just me and Liam. He does that with the other boys too. We all do it to each other,” Zayn says. “There’s nothing going on between me and Liam.”

“Look, I don’t want to be the bad guy here, Zayn. Tell me the truth, or I’ll tell everyone about you smoking, and you know how Liam feels about you smoking,” Lisa hisses. “Fess up.”

Zayn’s eyes widen. “Y- You have no proof!”

Lisa takes out her phone and shows Zayn a picture of him smoking from the other night. “I have proof,”

“Okay, we’re dating!” Zayn shouts as tears begin to form in his eyes. He takes a deep breath. “Please don’t tell Liam about me smoking. I promised him I would stop.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Lisa smirks. “Who else knows about this relationship of yours?”

“N- No one,” Zayn shakes his head. “We aren’t ready to tell people yet.”

“Well, perhaps you should change your mind about that, and fast. You two being in a relationship is exactly the kind of press we need for the band!” Lisa exclaims. “The fans will go crazy over this.”

“What?” Zayn asks, blinking a few times as he looks up at Lisa. “You’re not being serious, are you?”

“Of course I am. I’m sure the rest of management will agree with me,” Lisa says.

“No!” Zayn shouts angrily, he doesn’t even hear the other boys walking up to them. “We’re not doing this. This is our personal lives we’re talking about, and you can’t just force someone out of the closet when they’re not ready, and you can’t keep using us like this! I’m not gonna let you ruin Liam and I’s relationship because you want more press for the band.” He turns around and gasps when he sees the boys.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Niall asks, staring at Zayn with worry, the other boys looking just as worried.

Zayn looks over at Liam with wide eyes. “Li, I-”

“Were you threatening Zayn?” Harry asks angrily, grabbing Zayn and pulling him away from Lisa.

“Are you okay?” Liam whispers as the other boys starting arguing with Lisa.

“I’m so sorry,” Zayn apologizes, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Li. I had no idea you were behind me!”

“I know,” Liam whispers, gently grabbing Zayn’s arm. “I’m not mad, especially not at you.”

“We’re done,” Zayn hears Louis say. He looks over at the other boys. “We’re getting new management.”

“You can’t do that!” Lisa shouts, crossing her arms against her chest.

“Watch us. We’re done with Modest messing with our lives,” Harry snaps, scoffing. The boys turn around to face Liam and Zayn. “Come on, lads. We have to get on the buses.”

It’s silent as the boys make their way to the tour buses, and all Zayn wants to do is smoke.

“I need a fucking cigarette,” Louis complains, falling onto the couch with a loud sigh.

“That makes two of us,” Zayn mumbles, knowing Liam heard him.

“Hey, you promised,” Liam says as he looks over at Zayn.

Zayn looks over at Liam with an apologetic smile. “Sorry,” he says. “I have been trying, but…”

“You’re trying. That’s all I can ask for,” Liam says, placing a hand on Zayn’s arm.

“So,” Louis begins, and Zayn groans internally, because he knows this is the part where the boys question he and Liam’s relationship. This is what he’s been dreading. “You two, are… what? Together?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Liam replies, rubbing his arm nervously.

“How long has this been going on for then?” Harry curiously asks as he sits next to Louis.

“‘Bout a year and a half,” Zayn answers honestly, sharing a glance with Liam.

 _“A year and a half?”_ Niall repeats, his tone of surprise causing Zayn to laugh. “For that long? And, you... you never told any of us? We would have supported you!”

“We know,” Liam says. “We wanted to tell you guys. But, we agreed to keep our relationship a secret until we thought the time was right. We were actually just talking about it the other night, trust me.”

“We’re sorry for lying,” Zayn mumbles. “And, we hope this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“‘Course not, mate. You’re still you... and Liam’s still Liam. And, forget anything management told you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I don’t know about you guys, I’m done with Modest,”

“Yeah, we feel the same. But, how exactly are we going to leave them when we’re under contract?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Louis assures him, sitting up. “Lisa threatening Zayn is the last straw.”

“What did she say to you?” Liam asks, turning to look at Zayn.

Zayn sighs. “She was going to tell you about my smoking. She probably would’ve leaked it to everyone, but I was honestly just more worried about what you were going to say,” he says.

“I’m not mad,” Liam tries to reassure him. “I know you’re trying. We’ll work on it together.”

“So, I’m guessing that you probably want us to keep this a secret?” Niall asks as he walks into the lounge with a cup of tea in his hands, sitting on the couch across from Harry and Louis.

“For now,” Liam says, nodding. “Until we figure out what the hell we’re going to do.”

“S’long as Lisa doesn’t leak the story first,” Zayn mumbles.

“She can’t. She has no proof that you two are together,” Louis says. “You should be safe for now.”

Zayn looks over at Liam, and then bites his lip nervously before he pulls him to the side. “Li, I don’t want our relationship leaked. I know we were gonna wait, but I want the fans to hear it from us,” he says.

“It won’t be leaked,” Liam tries to assure him. “We’ll be able to come out on our own terms.”

Zayn shakes his head. “You don’t know that for sure. Please, will you think about it?”

“Of course,” Liam says, sighing softly, before pulling Zayn into a hug. “I love you. We’re going to be fine.”

Zayn closes his eyes as he hugs Liam back tightly. “I love you too,” he whispers.


End file.
